IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecolec/v243y2026ics0921800926000017.html

Participatory democracy in question: The case of “the sea in debate”

Author

Listed:
  • Wolff, François-Charles
  • Mahieu, Pierre-Alexandre
  • Trouillet, Brice
  • Pigeault, Alexia
  • Rollo, Nicolas

Abstract

While participatory democracy invites all citizens to take part directly in the decision-making process, the selection of participants in public debates is a critical issue for the legitimacy of the resulting public choices. This paper examines this question in the context of the national public debate on offshore wind energy held in France in the first quarter of 2024. We study an original survey measuring spatial preferences for offshore wind energy in which both participants in the public debate and respondents from the general population were simultaneously surveyed. We find large differences between the two groups of respondents in terms of gender, age, and education, as well as in their spatial preferences for wind farm locations. Using an entropy balancing approach, we reject the hypothesis that these differences in spatial preferences are due to composition effects. These findings underscore the need for policymakers to exercise caution when interpreting the outcomes of public debates.

Suggested Citation

  • Wolff, François-Charles & Mahieu, Pierre-Alexandre & Trouillet, Brice & Pigeault, Alexia & Rollo, Nicolas, 2026. "Participatory democracy in question: The case of “the sea in debate”," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 243(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecolec:v:243:y:2026:i:c:s0921800926000017
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2026.108916
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921800926000017
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2026.108916?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or

    for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hainmueller, Jens, 2012. "Entropy Balancing for Causal Effects: A Multivariate Reweighting Method to Produce Balanced Samples in Observational Studies," Political Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 20(1), pages 25-46, January.
    2. Mattmann, Matteo & Logar, Ivana & Brouwer, Roy, 2016. "Wind power externalities: A meta-analysis," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 23-36.
    3. François‑Charles Wolff & Pierre‑Alexandre Mahieu & Brice Trouillet & Alexia Pigeault & Nicolas Rollo, 2024. "Spatial Preferences for the Location of Offshore Wind Farms," Economie et Statistique / Economics and Statistics, Institut National de la Statistique et des Etudes Economiques (INSEE), issue 545, pages 3-25.
    4. Train,Kenneth E., 2009. "Discrete Choice Methods with Simulation," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521766555.
    5. Aragonès, Enriqueta & Sánchez-Pagés, Santiago, 2009. "A theory of participatory democracy based on the real case of Porto Alegre," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 53(1), pages 56-72, January.
    6. Arne Risa Hole, 2007. "Fitting mixed logit models by using maximum simulated likelihood," Stata Journal, StataCorp LLC, vol. 7(3), pages 388-401, September.
    7. Lee, Min-Kyu & Nam, Jungho & Kim, Miju, 2023. "Valuing the public preference for offshore wind energy: The case study in South Korea," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 263(PB).
    8. Kelvin Balcombe & Michail Bitzios & Iain Fraser & Janet Haddock-Fraser, 2014. "Using Attribute Importance Rankings Within Discrete Choice Experiments: An Application to Valuing Bread Attributes," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 65(2), pages 446-462, June.
    9. Laurie Tissière & Brice Trouillet, 2022. "What Participation Means in Marine Spatial Planning Systems? Lessons from the French Case," Planning Practice & Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(3), pages 355-376, May.
    10. Hynes, Stephen & Armstrong, Claire W. & Xuan, Bui Bich & Ankamah-Yeboah, Isaac & Simpson, Katherine & Tinch, Robert & Ressurreição, Adriana, 2021. "Have environmental preferences and willingness to pay remained stable before and during the global Covid-19 shock?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 189(C).
    11. Hainmueller, Jens & Xu, Yiqing, 2013. "ebalance: A Stata Package for Entropy Balancing," Journal of Statistical Software, Foundation for Open Access Statistics, vol. 54(i07).
    12. Daniele Pacifico & Hong il Yoo, 2013. "lclogit: A Stata command for fitting latent-class conditional logit models via the expectation-maximization algorithm," Stata Journal, StataCorp LLC, vol. 13(3), pages 625-639, September.
    13. Ioannis Theodossiou & Alexandros Zangelidis, 2020. "Inequality and Participative Democracy: A Self‐Reinforcing Mechanism," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 66(1), pages 74-93, March.
    14. Benjamin Monnery & François-Charles Wolff, 2023. "Is participatory democracy in line with social protest? Evidence from the French Yellow Vests movement," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 197(1), pages 283-309, October.
    15. Mariel, Petr & Meyerhoff, Jürgen, 2018. "A More Flexible Model or Simply More Effort? On the Use of Correlated Random Parameters in Applied Choice Studies," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 154(C), pages 419-429.
    16. Ben Jann, 2021. "Entropy balancing as an estimation command," University of Bern Social Sciences Working Papers 39, University of Bern, Department of Social Sciences, revised 16 Aug 2021.
    17. Vass, Caroline M. & Boeri, Marco & Poulos, Christine & Turner, Alex J., 2022. "Matching and weighting in stated preferences for health care," Journal of choice modelling, Elsevier, vol. 44(C).
    18. Joalland, Olivier & Mahieu, Pierre-Alexandre, 2023. "Developing large-scale offshore wind power programs: A choice experiment analysis in France," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 204(PA).
    19. Emanuel V. Towfigh & Sebastian J. Goerg & Andreas Glöckner & Philip Leifeld & Aniol Llorente-Saguer & Sophie Bade & Carlos Kurschilgen, 2016. "Do direct-democratic procedures lead to higher acceptance than political representation?," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 167(1), pages 47-65, April.
    20. Beggs, S. & Cardell, S. & Hausman, J., 1981. "Assessing the potential demand for electric cars," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 17(1), pages 1-19, September.
    21. Cranmer, Alexana & Broughel, Anna Ebers & Ericson, Jonathan & Goldberg, Mike & Dharni, Kira, 2023. "Getting to 30 GW by 2030: Visual preferences of coastal residents for offshore wind farms on the US East Coast," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 173(C).
    22. Graham Smith & Corinne Wales, 2000. "Citizens' Juries and Deliberative Democracy," Political Studies, Political Studies Association, vol. 48(1), pages 51-65, March.
    23. Michiel C. J. Bliemer & John M. Rose, 2024. "Designing and conducting stated choice experiments," Chapters, in: Stephane Hess & Andrew Daly (ed.), Handbook of Choice Modelling, chapter 7, pages 172-205, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    24. McFadden, Daniel, 1974. "The measurement of urban travel demand," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 3(4), pages 303-328, November.
    25. Daniel McFadden & Kenneth Train, 2000. "Mixed MNL models for discrete response," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 15(5), pages 447-470.
    26. Kim, Hyo-Jin & Kim, Ju-Hee & Yoo, Seung-Hoon, 2019. "Social acceptance of offshore wind energy development in South Korea: Results from a choice experiment survey," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 1-1.
    27. Stephen Hynes & Isaac Ankamah-Yeboah & Stephen O’Neill & Katherine Needham & Bui Bich Xuan & Claire Armstrong, 2021. "The impact of nature documentaries on public environmental preferences and willingness to pay: entropy balancing and the blue planet II effect," Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 64(8), pages 1428-1456, June.
    28. David Hensher & William Greene, 2003. "The Mixed Logit model: The state of practice," Transportation, Springer, vol. 30(2), pages 133-176, May.
    29. Alejandro Caparrós & José L. Oviedo & Pablo Campos, 2008. "Would You Choose Your Preferred Option? Comparing Choice and Recoded Ranking Experiments," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 90(3), pages 843-855.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Haghani, Milad & Bliemer, Michiel C.J. & Hensher, David A., 2021. "The landscape of econometric discrete choice modelling research," Journal of choice modelling, Elsevier, vol. 40(C).
    2. Haile, Kaleab K. & Tirivayi, Nyasha & Tesfaye, Wondimagegn, 2019. "Farmers’ willingness to accept payments for ecosystem services on agricultural land: The case of climate-smart agroforestry in Ethiopia," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 39(C).
    3. Hynes, S. & Ankamah-Yeboah, I. & O’Neill, S. & Needham, K. & Bich Xuan, B. & Armstrong, C., 2020. "Entropy balancing for causal effects in discrete choice analysis: The Blue Planet II effect," Working Papers 309500, National University of Ireland, Galway, Socio-Economic Marine Research Unit.
    4. Gutsche, Gunnar & Ziegler, Andreas, 2019. "Which private investors are willing to pay for sustainable investments? Empirical evidence from stated choice experiments," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 193-214.
    5. Gunnar Gutsche & Andreas Ziegler, 2016. "Are private investors willing to pay for sustainable investments? A stated choice experiment," MAGKS Papers on Economics 201640, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Faculty of Business Administration and Economics, Department of Economics (Volkswirtschaftliche Abteilung).
    6. José L. Oviedo & Hong Il Yoo, 2017. "A Latent Class Nested Logit Model for Rank-Ordered Data with Application to Cork Oak Reforestation," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 68(4), pages 1021-1051, December.
    7. Linnerud, Kristin & Dugstad, Anders & Rygg, Bente Johnsen & Gilpin, Geoffrey Sean & Holden, Erling, 2025. "Energy crisis and social acceptance of offshore wind–A before-and-after analysis," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 325(C).
    8. Hynes, Stephen & Armstrong, Claire W. & Xuan, Bui Bich & Ankamah-Yeboah, Isaac & Simpson, Katherine & Tinch, Robert & Ressurreição, Adriana, 2021. "Have environmental preferences and willingness to pay remained stable before and during the global Covid-19 shock?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 189(C).
    9. Frick, Bernd & Barros, Carlos Pestana & Prinz, Joachim, 2010. "Analysing head coach dismissals in the German "Bundesliga" with a mixed logit approach," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 200(1), pages 151-159, January.
    10. Juan Carlos Martín & Concepción Román & Cira Mendoza, 2018. "Determinants for sun-and-beach self-catering accommodation selection," Tourism Economics, , vol. 24(3), pages 319-336, May.
    11. Deka, Devajyoti & Carnegie, Jon, 2021. "Predicting transit mode choice of New Jersey workers commuting to New York City from a stated preference survey," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    12. Benjamin Monnery & François-Charles Wolff, 2023. "Is participatory democracy in line with social protest? Evidence from the French Yellow Vests movement," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 197(1), pages 283-309, October.
    13. Siikamaki, Juha & Layton, David F., 2007. "Discrete choice survey experiments: A comparison using flexible methods," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 53(1), pages 122-139, January.
    14. Hong il Yoo, 2012. "The perceived unreliability of rank-ordered data: an econometric origin and implications," Discussion Papers 2012-46, School of Economics, The University of New South Wales.
    15. Galassi, Veronica & Madlener, Reinhard, 2017. "The Role of Environmental Concern and Comfort Expectations in Energy Retrofit Decisions," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 53-65.
    16. George E. Halkos & Panagiotis‐Stavros C. Aslanidis, 2026. "The Socio‐Cultural and Spiritual Dimensions on Non‐Marketed Environmental Valuation," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 34(S1), pages 407-426, January.
    17. Marco A. Palma & Dmitry V. Vedenov & David Bessler, 2020. "The order of variables, simulation noise, and accuracy of mixed logit estimates," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 58(5), pages 2049-2083, May.
    18. Reich, Charlotte-Elena & Musshoff, Oliver, 2022. "Oil Palm Smallholders Preferences towards Certification Schemes -A Discrete Choice Experiment in Indonesia," 2022 Annual Meeting, July 31-August 2, Anaheim, California 322371, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    19. Schueftan, Alejandra & Aravena, Claudia & Reyes, René, 2021. "Financing energy efficiency retrofits in Chilean households: The role of financial instruments, savings and uncertainty in energy transition," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    20. René Belderbos & Nazareno Braito & Jian Wang, 2024. "Heterogeneous university research and firm R&D location decisions: research orientation, academic quality, and investment type," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 49(5), pages 1959-1989, October.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • D7 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making
    • Q51 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Valuation of Environmental Effects

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ecolec:v:243:y:2026:i:c:s0921800926000017. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/ecolecon .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.